Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi misses out on Paris Olympics swim medal

Teenager finished fourth in men's 800m freestyle final

Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia in action in the 800m freestyle final. Reuters

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Teenager Ahmed Jaouadi narrowly missed out on securing an Olympic medal for Tunisia on Tuesday after finishing fourth in the men's 800-metre freestyle final.

Jaouadi secured his place in the final by smashing his own personal best time in Monday's semi-final but the final proved a step too far for the 19-year-old.

He managed to keep pace with the trio of Daniel Wiffen, Bobby Finke and Gregorio Paltrinieri through the first half of the race but found himself down in fourth with 200m left and was unable to close the gap on the medal positions.

His time of 7:42.83 was slightly down on the personal best of 7:42.07 set in Monday's semi-final.

Wiffen became Ireland's first men's gold medal winner in the pool at an Olympic Games. He edged a titanic tussle with American Finke, who took silver, and Italy's Paltrinieri who bagged bronze.

World champion Wiffen took control at 400m after Australia's Elijah Winnington went out hard but tired as the Irishman reeled him in.

Although Leeds-born Wiffen was trailing with 50m left, he overhauled Paltrineri then held off a late surge from Finke of the United States to seal gold.

"I said I'd write my name into the history books and I've done it," Wiffen said after the race. "The game plan went exactly how I wanted to execute it."

Wiffen's winning time of 7:38.19 was the fifth fastest time in history, although still more than six seconds slower than Zhang Lin's world record set in Rome 15 years ago.

The only other gold won by Ireland in an Olympic pool came at Atlanta in 1996 when Michelle Smith collected three.

Wiffen will also contest the 1,500m freestyle and the 10km open water swim.